Vaclav Kotal expecting Celtic to come out firing against Sparta Prague
Sparta Prague boss Vaclav Kotal is expecting an all-or-nothing battle against Celtic in their Europa League clash on Thursday night.
The Czech Republic side won 4-1 at Parkhead earlier in the month to leave the Scottish champions with one point from three Group H fixtures.
Hoops boss Neil Lennon, under-fire from a section of his own supporters who want him to depart the club, admits only victory on matchday four will do if they are to have any chance of qualifying from the group.
Those Parkhead points, however, are the only ones Sparta Prague have collected with French side Lille and Italian giants AC Milan on seven and six points respectively and Kotal insists his desire for a win matches that of Lennon.
Speaking through an interpreter, he said: I don't think Celtic were holding back when they were playing at home so I expect they won't hold back tomorrow.
I think we are in a similar situation, we also need three points if we want to advance to the next round.
Celtic has a lot of good players, great quality and very experienced. They play with the same starting side most weeks so I expect it will be a difficult match.
We need to work on our defence, especially, if we want to be successful. We need to see what Celtic comes up with, if they play with three or four defenders.
I know they will want to attack but the most important thing for my players is that they need to be responsible and need to put in a lot of teamwork.
Celtic is still a great team even though they might not be happy right now but they have great resolve.''
Since beating Celtic the Czech Republic side have lost 3-1 away at Viktoria Plzen and 4-2 at home to Ceske Budejovice in their domestic league.
Striker Lukas Julis, who scored a hat-trick in Glasgow, is hoping to return to form against the Hoops.
He said: The last match (at Celtic) was good for me but in the last two matches I haven't been very good so I hope I can repeat my performance from the Celtic match.
We are looking forward to a good match. We hope that we can win again.''